LAPD to End Some Data-Driven Program Following Criticism

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Protesters attend the Los Angeles Police Commission's special meeting on the LAPD's use of data in policing. (Credit: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)

LAPD to End Some Data-Driven Program Following Criticism

Protesters attend the Los Angeles Police Commission's special meeting on the LAPD's use of data in policing. (Credit: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore plans to scrap a controversial program that uses data to identify individuals who are most likely to commit violent crimes, bowing to criticism included in an audit and by privacy groups.

In a five-page memo sent Friday to the Police Commission, the civilian panel that oversees the LAPD, Moore detailed a host of changes in response to a 52-page audit by Inspector General Mark Smith.

Smith found that the department’s data analysis programs lacked oversight and that officers used inconsistent criteria to label people as “chronic offenders.” Smith also couldn’t determine the overall effectiveness of a geographic component that tried to pinpoint the location of some property crimes.

Moore told commissioners the department will not use programs that fail to produce results and will strive to “identify new or emerging ideas that hold promise.”